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Opportunity Culture® News and Views

Watch: Trends in the Teacher Workforce Webinar

by | March 18, 2022

By Public Impact, March 17, 2022

A recording of February’s “Trends in the Teacher Workforce” webinar, featuring a panel discussion moderated by Public Impact’s Alison Harris Welcher, is available now; click here to watch it and read EdNC’s report on the event, hosted by The Belk Foundation.

The panelists discussed strategies for recruiting and retaining teachers in North Carolina, including teacher residencies.

That’s a strategy that multiple Opportunity Culture school districts in Texas now use. Unlike traditional student-teacher roles, Opportunity Culture residencies are yearlong, paid positions on teaching teams led by multi-classroom leaders.

2 Opportunity Culture® Educators Among 9 Regional N.C. Principals of the Year

by | February 28, 2022

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 28, 2022

Congratulations to KaTrinka Brown, Piedmont-Triad Region Principal of the Year, and Larenda Denien, Southwest Region Principal of the Year! The awards place Brown and Denien in the running for North Carolina Principal of the Year, announced in May.

I spoke to both principals recently, and as you’ll read in spotlights of each, a common theme in their leadership success quickly emerged: the power of relationships.

An Opportunity Culture® Principal Reflects

by | February 25, 2022

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 25, 2022

Kicking off the new “Opportunity Culture Audio” pieces that we’ll begin sharing from time to time this year, our first piece highlights Jenny O’Meara, who until 2021 served as a principal for a middle school using Opportunity Culture roles.

O’Meara, who was an Opportunity Culture Fellow in 2019–20, worked in Edgecombe County Public Schools in a rural part of North Carolina, which has taken its Opportunity Culture implementation district-wide. After stepping away from her principalship, she sat for an interview about her Opportunity Culture experience, including reflections on working with her school’s first multi-classroom leader, or MCL, and valuable lessons to share with current principals.

Resetting Teaching: Mitigating the Great Resignation

by | February 14, 2022

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, February 14, 2022

Making sense of the conflicting reports about teacher shortages and resignations may take many more months, but CNET took a solid look in The Great Resignation Hasn’t Hit School Teachers Yet. Here’s Why It Still Might. It highlights Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative as one approach to “bringing a reset to the role of teachers,” and quotes Anne Claire Tejtel Nornhold, who leads Opportunity Culture work in Baltimore City Public Schools.

“Everybody is Traumatized”: Opportunity Culture® Fellows on Keeping On

by | January 25, 2022

By Sharon Kebschull Barrett, January 25, 2022

With ongoing Covid-related stresses this year, many Opportunity Culture educators have wondered how much their challenges match those of other Opportunity Culture schools. Before the winter break, educators from multiple cohorts of Opportunity Culture Fellows gathered online to share their experiences and support one another—and found their stresses mirrored much of what has been in the news for months.

Tools for Teaching and Leading; Language Barriers in Remote Learning: December Opportunity Culture® Newsletter

by | December 13, 2021

Public Impact, December 13, 2021

We wish you all happy holidays and a rejuvenating winter break; we continue to hear from Opportunity Culture educators across the country about how very challenging this school year has been for many of you. If you would like to share your story, please email me so we can chat briefly, to include in a future newsletter. Thank you!